Saving Harry
by SiriuslyMental7
Summary: Harry was killed and Voldemort won the war. But when Hermione gets thrown into the past, she vows that she will not let Harry die. With Sirius in the picture she may end up changing a lot more than she expected. SB/HG
1. Chapter 1

In this story the battle takes place at the beginning of their 6th year, Dumbledore is already dead, and they don't know that Snape is a good guy.

I really hope you like it, even if you don't please leave a review to tell me what you think – constructive criticism is welcome.

The Beginning

The battle was practically over at Hogwarts, and Voldemort had won. In the middle of the great hall was Harry's motionless body, his eyes lifeless. The order had not given up, but Hermione noticed that their numbers were dwindling fast.

She lifted her head slightly, the dead bodies surrounding her acting as a shield from the last fights going on, and was disgusted to see Voldemort sitting in Dumbledore's chair watching the battle with sick interest. Soon she would get up and fight, but she had to rest for at least a few moments first. Her body was tired from being hit with the cruciatus curse and she was surprised that she was even alive, perhaps the death eaters had made a mistake? The thought made her smile and then she laughed quietly, until she realised she was actually crying. It suddenly dawned upon her that she was going to die, and she quickly decided that if these were her last moments then she should use them wisely.

Hermione saw the doors of the Great Hall open and somebody walk in. When she realised who it was she was filled with a rage so huge it felt like her entire body was burning. All she wanted now was revenge, revenge for Harry and Ron and for anybody else she loved that Voldemort had taken away. If these were her last moments, then she would use them to kill Severus Snape.

Hermione crawled her way through the dead bodies, ducking behind them so that none of the other death eaters would see her. It would not do for her to become involved in duel with one of them. When she was close enough, she stood up and advanced towards Snape, her wand at the ready.

"Snape!" She said loudly. And he turned around. When he saw her he looked surprised and… relieved? He took a step towards her and she quickly raised her wand. He continued to walk towards her and she threw a curse at him, which he deflected easily. But he didn't try to retaliate.

"Fight me you bastard!" She spat out, shooting another curse his way. Again he deflected it. He was only a metre away from her now.

"Don't be stupid, girl." He hissed. "Shut up and listen to me."

"Why would I listen to you? You're a slimy traitorous git!" She replied. But she didn't send anymore spells his way. Something about his expression made her stop.

He came close to her and started whispering hurriedly. "You have to stop this from happening, okay? You have to change it. Make sure they don't die. I don't care how much else you change, but make sure they don't die." Hermione was very confused, but by now the death eaters were looking at them and they had Voldemort's attention.

Snape lifted his wand and Hermione quickly stepped back and raised her own, but before she had time to protect herself Snape had loudly shouted a spell that she didn't know. Hermione was thrown into the air and, for a second, everything went black.

The Great Hall was filled with laughter as breakfast took place. Sirius sat with James, Remus and Peter at the Gryffindor table, and they were currently whispering to each other about a plot they had come up with to annoy Snivellus. James was grinning widely, Peter giggling nervously and even Remus, who was usually quite withdrawn about taking part in their plans, was smiling and giving them advice on how improve the effectiveness of their new prank. This was good, because they always seemed to work better when Moony, who was the most sensible of them all, gave his input.

There was suddenly a flash of green light that put an end to their conversation. Sirius was surprised to see that, seemingly from out of nowhere, a girl covered in blood and scars materialised above them. She stayed in the air for only a second, before falling to the table in front of them. He heard a commotion around him as many teachers and students stood up to see what was happening, but that didn't matter – because at that moment, she turned her head, opened her eyes, and stared at him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to those who reviewed the first chapter, or put this story on their favourites or alerts - it made my day :). In response to my first reviewer's question, yes this is my first story. I had been reading fanfiction for a while before I decided to create an account and put a story of my own up… anyway, on with the second chapter.**

**Disclaimer (I realised that I had not put one up before so here it is): I do not own Harry Potter, and it belongs to the brilliant J. K. Rowling.**

Hermione opened her eyes and looked straight into the grey ones of a boy in front of her, although she didn't acknowledge him. She felt like she had been hit with a million different curses at once, her head was pounding and she couldn't seem to stop shivering. Sweat was practically dripping of her body and she was suddenly thrown two metres up into the air. Hermione could hear gasps and whispers all around her and started to wonder where she was. But then she fell back down onto the table, and the pain going through her whole body was elevated, which caused her to lose all coherent thoughts. She let out an inhuman scream of agony and jerked to the side.

Hermione whimpered as she was picked up from the table she had been lying upon. Right now she would rather die than have the pain continue, so she let herself be taken, not caring who was holding her, nor where she was going. She concentrated on the footsteps of whoever was carrying her and tried to make sure she didn't scream again. The must have exited the room they had been in last, because here there were no loud whispers and all she heard were the echoing sounds of footsteps, but then they stopped and she opened her eyes in surprise.

She could now see that the boy holding her was the one who had stared at her while she was on the table. When he became conscious of the fact that he was being looked at, he smiled kindly down at her – a smile that made something in Hermione's mind click into place. She _knew_ that smile, but she couldn't remember where from. She tried to search her brain for the answer but thinking at all just seemed to make her head hurt, so she stopped.

Hermione now realised the reason the boy had stopped walking, there were other people coming towards him. They were talking, their voices getting louder and louder, Hermione felt as if they were shouting, even though in reality they were talking relatively quietly. Their voices hurt Hermione's head, and she put her hands over her ears to block the sounds.

"Dear, can you hear me?" One of the voices asked, the question must have been from a lady as the voice was soft and caring. Somehow Hermione recognised it, and it gave her comfort. She nodded, the movement making her dizzy. "Okay, then you should drink this." The same voice said again, and a cup was placed against her lips. Whether it was because the voice was stern but comforting or the fact that Hermione felt as if she knew who the woman was, she drank. Anyway, even if she was being fed poison, death was better than spending another moment in this agony.

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><p>Sirius looked down at the girl in front of him and wondered, not for the first time, why he was here. He hadn't even had a conversation with the mysterious brunette, yet he had felt some kind of obligation to come and see her in the hospital wing for the last three days she had been unconscious, and today he had dragged James along with him.<p>

"Why are we even here, Padfoot? You don't even know the girl. What is it; do you have the hots for her or something?" James said loudly from the other side of her bed. Madam Pomfrey looked at them disapprovingly from where she was tending to a first year with nose bleed, and Sirius blushed.

"Would you just shut up James? She might be able to hear you." Sirius hissed back, indicating to the Hermione. "And anyway, even if I did like her, I wouldn't act anything like you do with Lily – I've got plenty of girls practically begging me to go out with them. Or to do _other _things." He said with a smirk. James slapped him over the back of the head.

"Well, it's a good thing you don't want to go out with the girl, because if she heard _that _little speech of yours, she won't want to be seen dead with you." James replied, before popping one of the chocolate frogs Lily had been kind enough to leave for Hermione into his mouth.

"Hello boys." Dumbledore's laughing voice echoed through the infirmary and James stopped moving just before he put the next chocolate frog into his mouth. "I was about to say how nice it was that you were visiting the girl, but it seems that Mr Potter here has just come to snipe her presents." Dumbledore said, chuckling.

"I didn't…I'm sorry…I didn't mean to…" James spluttered out, the forgotten chocolate frog now on the floor. Dumbledore made his way over to the bed and Sirius quickly vanished the melting chocolate with his wand.

"I was joking, boy – although seeing as none of us know what the girl's personality is like, you may want to buy her some more of those. For all we know, she could be very protective of her chocolate." Dumbledore said, his expression turning serious. "Now, you may want to stand back, boys – I am going to find out who this girl is."

Sirius and James quickly took three large steps away from the bed and looked on with interest as Dumbledore pointed his wand at the girl and started muttering. He continued doing this for about ten seconds before a faint blue glow started to surround him and Hermione's bed. Eventually the blue surrounded them in a complete circle, but Dumbledore kept on speaking, getting louder and louder. The blue circle seemed to muffle the sounds of the words so that neither Sirius nor James could properly make them out, and Sirius looked on, wondering what the spell did.

Without warning, the spell ended leaving a tired, confused looking Dumbledore staring at the brunette. "Mr Black, get Madam Pomfrey, please." He said quietly.

"But sir, what did the spell do, did you…"

"Get Madam Pomfrey, NOW! This is _very _important!" This was the first time Sirius had ever had Dumbledore shout at him, and quickly rushed off to get the school nurse, wondering what on earth could have been so important about the mysterious girl in the bed.

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><p>Hermione woke up and looked around in surprise, she knew this room – or at least she thought she did. It looked just the same as the small private room in the infirmary at Hogwarts, and she knew <em>that<em> room well. She had visited it many times in the past few years, sometimes to visit Harry or Ron, and occasionally because of her own injuries from the adventures she had had with her friends. The events of the recent days now started to return to her memory, and she sat back down on the bed before she could start crying.

She banished the thought of Harry and Ron from her mind, and instead tried to understand why she was here, in Hogwarts. Surely if she had been captured by the Voldemort she wouldn't be alive – unless she had been saved because she was a female. The thought made her grimace as she remembered some of the horrific things that happened to captured girls of her age, when they had been rescued many didn't recover. But no, Death Eaters wouldn't sink to her level, surely – because she was a mudblood, and not worthy to even be in their presence. For once, she was slightly happy about how she was discriminated against, before starting to think, again, about why she was alive. For a moment she wondered if perhaps, by some miracle, the good side had won the war, before realising that it was just wishful thinking on her part. There was not a chance they could have held off Voldemort for much longer, let alone stopped him, without Harry. He had been their only hope, and had failed them.

Hermione was still trying to figure everything out, when there was a knock on her door. Before she could say anything the door opened and in walked the one and only Albus Dumbledore. The one and only, very much _dead,_ Albus Dumbledore.

"Hello, Hermione, it's good to see that you're awake." Hermione was lost for words for only a moment before her quick mind got to work, and her eyes narrowed.

"Who are you, and why do you look like Albus Dumbledore?"

"I'm sorry miss, but I _am _Albus Dumbledore, you see…" He started to speak, but Hermione interrupted.

"You can't be Dumbledore, because he is dead!" She hissed. The headmaster inhaled quickly at this, and was silent for a second. He then gave a small, wistful smile.

"Oh, well that's a bit of a shame; I expected to survive slightly longer than that. I suppose you can never get exactly what you want out of life though, can you." He smiled again, in her direction. She glared at him, still believing this to be some kind of trick.

"What are you talking about?"

"Now Miss Granger, I'm going to cut to the chase. An identification spell…"

"A what?"

"Identification spell, they are used to identify…"

"Yes, I understand that, but why haven't I heard of it?"

"It takes a lot of magic to cast an identification spell, and it can be a powerful weapon for a dark wizard to possess. I would not be surprised if they are boycotted in your time. They should only be used in extreme circumstances, for example, when an unknown witch suddenly materialises in the great hall while we are eating breakfast." He gave her a smile, and something about the twinkle in his eyes gave her the urge to smile back. She didn't.

"What do you mean 'my time'? I don't understand what you're talking about." Hermione said. But she was lying, she knew exactly what he was implying – and it didn't make sense.

"As I was saying, an Identification spell was used to, well, identify you. From it I gained the knowledge that you are called Hermione Granger, you are muggle-born and your date of birth is the 19th of September, 1979, among other information. But the year is 1977, Hermione, and there is no record of you anywhere. You haven't yet been born." He gave her a small smile, which she didn't return. Hermione didn't understand it, her logical mind told her that it couldn't be true, no spell or potion had been invented that could send people this far back in time, even a time turner could only take the user back a few hours. So how could Snape have sent her back here?

"Prove it." She said shakily. "Let me use Legilimency on you." He looked at her in surprise, and then he sighed sadly.

"What on earth happened in the future that meant a young girl like you had to learn Legilimency?"

"It was necessary." She replied stiffly, remembering her lessons with Snape. It was the first time he treated her like an equal, mainly because, at this, she _was_ his equal. She was brilliant at it, and had looked forward to her lessons. Learning Legilimency and Occlumency had brought her closer to the potions master, so she had felt even more betrayed when he had killed Dumbledore. "So, will you allow me to use it on you?"

"Yes, but only so you can see I'm telling the truth, letting you into my mind is going to be a tiring process, for both of us." He sat down in the chair beside her bed and closed his eyes. Hermione relaxed into a comfortable position on her bed and stared at Dumbledore's head, willing herself into his mind. He must have taken down all his barriers, as she drifted into his memories easily. Not that it would have made a difference if he had had them up, Dumbledore may have been the most brilliant wizard in the world, but Severus Snape was the best at Legilimency. And she was just as good as Severus Snape.

Hermione had been inside Dumbledore's head once before, when he had asked her to, to see just how powerful she was. She had managed to break through every single barrier he had put up, and her reward was to see inside the mind of the great Albus Dumbledore, but she had hated it. She saw, through his eyes, all the pain and suffering caused by Voldemort, and how he felt it was his own fault. She had quickly pulled herself out of his mind, and afterwards her view of the wizard had changed entirely.

Now, there was none of that, and she searched through his mind in its entirety. There was nothing, except from a few recent murders that he was worried about, and had connected to Tom Riddle, the interview he had had with Tom, where he wanted the Defence Against the Dark Arts job, and Tom's school days. Yes, Dumbledore still had a lot of pain in his life, mainly because of what had happened with Grindelwald, but nothing like what he had to deal with in the future. She pulled herself out from his mind, and it suddenly dawned on her. This was what she was destined to do; she had to change the past to save the future. Hermione would do whatever it took, she wouldn't let Voldemort win, and she wouldn't let Harry die.

**Okay, so to me this seemed pretty long, was it too long/too short? Anyway, I hope you liked it – even if you didn't, just tell me what you think in a review. Pretty please? :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry it's been so long, I had a lot to think about. I realised that I had no idea where the story was going, but I do now… sort of. I just have to decide about some things, I'm trying to make it as accurate as possible and thinking about what Hermione would do if she was put in this situation, obviously her character has to change a little to fit with my ideas for the story, but other than that it should all fit with her personality. If I'm doing something wrong then please tell me, I'd like to hear your opinion. And by the way there is going to be swearing and stuff in this story – don't say you weren't warned!**

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><p>"What are you talking about? You can't do that! It's too dangerous – what if you create a paradox? You could accidentally kill your future self, or your parents… No, I will not allow it."<p>

"You haven't seen the future, Sir. You don't know what it's like, in any other situation I would completely agree with you – but I will not sit back and Voldemort kill the wizarding world without at least _trying _to stop him."

Hermione was currently standing in her room in the infirmary, it was only two days since she had first woken up there and, although still very tired, she was ready to get to work.

"Just let me join the sixth years here, they're at the same point in their education as I am in mine, and I need to finish school anyway. I could just… save the world on the side." At this she smirked, remembering the superhero movies she and her Dad used to watch. "You need to let me show you, I know you shouldn't see what happens in the future, but if we can change it then it won't be the future anymore."

Dumbledore looked at her quickly before nodding, and closed his eyes. She relaxed, letting all the barriers around her mind disappear and waited for him to use Legilimency on her. When she felt him inside her head, she forced all the memories she had of the war to the front and all the others, the ones she liked best, to the back. They were unimportant. She showed him everything she knew about Voldemort, and all her important memories from their first year onwards, making sure he saw what happened to James and Lily Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. He would be at school now. She felt her fist clench and tried to relax, he hadn't done anything yet.

When he was finished, she felt very tired. Everything he saw, she saw too. She had never wanted to relive those memories. Just thinking about them made her shudder.

"Do you understand now Sir?" She said shakily.

He ignored her question and, instead, looked at her, his eyes filled with such despair that only someone who had seen what she had could relate to. "I'm sorry for your losses, dear."

"I won't have any if I can change it. Will you let me change it?" She would do it anyway, even if he disagreed.

"Yes. I can see what needs to be done." His face went from gravely serious to being lit up by a smile. "Anyway I think that 114 is much too young an age to die – wouldn't you agree?"

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><p>"Don't worry, you'll be fine." Hermione looked at Professor McGonagall in surprise, wondering how she had noticed her discomfort. The Professor gave her a brisk smile. "You're shuffling about more than the first years did." She explained, before turning to the doors of the Great Hall. McGonagall was a great woman, and a brilliant witch, but she wasn't much of a talker. Hermione continued to shuffle her feet, worrying about what was to happen to her next. Hermione tried to focus on the task at hand - Professor Dumbledore had decided she was to be sorted, just like the first years, but as that sorting had already passed them by, she was to have her own Assembly. Just another way to make her stand out from the crowd.<p>

The doors opened, and McGonagall led her inside and then down between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. Everybody in the hall was staring at her now and some whispering quietly to one another. She tried to ignore them and soon came up to the chair with the sorting hat on top of it. _Oh God. What if it puts me into to Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff! How am I going to save anyone if I can't be near those I need to keep safe? _She tried to relax as she walked up the steps to the seat, focusing on not tripping or embarrassing herself. She felt the absence of Professor McGonagall's calming presence and looked over at the High Table where Dumbledore sat. He gave her a reassuring smile and she glared at him, not caring that she was being rude as she took the hat of the chair. He just chuckled quietly at her uneasiness.

This kind of thing had become common in the last few days, when they had been deciding what she was to do here; he had become a sort of father figure to her. It was something she welcomed, as she longed to see her own mother and father again. So far it seemed to Hermione that they weren't getting very far on the 'Saving the World' front. What she really wanted was to be part of the Order again, but Dumbledore was adamant that the Order was to stay 'Adults Only'.

"I can understand why you were in the Order in your time, but nothing that drastic is happening now – we just need to prepare for when it does. This time around no one who is still a student in Hogwarts will be part of the Order. That is final. If you want the students to be more prepared than their classes make them, _you _must be the one who helps them. Not me, not the Order, _you_."

Ever since Dumbledore had heard about the D.A he seemed to have it in his mind that Hermione should start up a similar group herself. What he didn't seem to understand was that she had to know and be friends with people in the school before she even had a hope of anyone turning up to meetings. People had to _like _her, and she had never been the most popular of girls – Harry and Ron had been the ones who really brought in new members of the D.A. And, now that she thought about it, they were probably the only reason she had had any friends at all at Hogwarts.

When she reached the chair, she picked up the hat and sat down, lowering it onto her head. The hat was silent for a few seconds before begin to talk.

"My, my, well this is quite a surprise – I knew this would be a special circumstance, but I didn't expect you to have travelled quite so far a distance to arrive here. Now, when was the last time someone like you sat on this chair? Oh yes - I remember now! It must have been 1675. That poor boy got the shock of his life when he turned up 10 years in the past!" At this Hermione inhaled sharply – there had been others like her?

"Oh gosh dear – you didn't think you were the only one did you? No, no, there have been others, not many, but a few. None have done so in quite the way you have though, most came back by accident. Extraordinary, a spell that can send someone 20 years into the past - it's a shame you don't know how to cast it." The hat stopped for a second, as if thinking about the possibilities. "Anyway, back to your sorting, you seem an interesting one – I can imagine you would fit into all of the houses." Hermione huffed and muttered under her breath 'I would _not _fit in Slytherin'.

"You would be surprised dear – you may be brave and intelligent and loyal, but you have a streak of cunning in you. That is the reason you would fit well in Slytherin. Although your blood status would mean you would be ostracised." He seemed to think about for a moment, before coming to a decision. "However interesting an experiment it would be, I think that Slytherin is not an option." Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. "Now, although you seem to be a very loyal young woman, I don't think that Hufflepuff would be the right place for you either, so the real decision is between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. You are a very intellectual girl, the brightest witch of your age it seems – so surely Ravenclaw would be the best place for you. But you seem to forget all common sense when you or your friends are in danger, and your Gryffindor traits kick in. You have courage in bucket loads, which you save for the most important moments. The place for you, Hermione, is GRYFFINDOR!"

Hermione felt herself deflate, all her anxiousness gone, and a huge grin lit up her face. There were huge cheers coming from the Gryffindor table, all the members of the house happy the hat had chosen for the Mysterious girl to become one of them. The rest of the hall did what they always did – the Slytherins glared, the Hufflepuffs cheered quietly, and the Ravenclaws clapped. She took the hat of her head and quickly stood up. When she turned around to place the hat back on the chair, she smiled happily up at Dumbledore, and he smiled in return, pleased that she seemed more relaxed.

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><p>Sirius grinned and stood up with his friends, cheering loudly as Hermione placed the sorting hat on the chair. He noticed Dumbledore smiling at her, and wondered about how they seemed to have become so close, almost like father and daughter, in such a short amount of time. Unless they knew each other before. Perhaps they were related – if so she had a lot to live up to.<p>

As she walked down towards the table, Sirius noticed how comfortable she looked, how confident. It was like she had done this before. He brushed the thought away as she continued to get closer, acknowledging how her face, although showing no traces of makeup, seemed to be glowing in the light of the hall. She really was very pretty, in an unconventional, natural sort of way. As Hermione got closer, Lily indicated for her to sit down with the group of sixth years. After they had been told of the sorting the night before, most of the sixth and some of the seventh years had decided to sit at the front of the Gryffindor table, instead of their usual place at the back. This meant that if Hermione _did_ get placed into Gryffindor, she would be able to sit near people her own age. For the first time in a long while, Sirius was thankful for James' infatuation with Lily, because it meant they were sitting opposite where Hermione was about to sit down.

Most of the Gryffindors came over and shook Hermione's hand, some of the girls hugging her, as she took her seat opposite Sirius. He leaned over and held out his hand to her, which she shook firmly. She didn't giggle, or even blush as many of the girls in his year would have – even though he gave her his killer smile. She seemed like a no-nonsense kind of girl, and Sirius found it refreshing. Lily introduced her to everyone on the table and Hermione seemed to take it all in pretty quickly. So far she seemed like a nice girl, but when Lily got to Peter, Sirius thought he saw a flicker of something in her eyes. He blinked and it was gone. Before he could say anything, Lily started talking.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but I'm sure everyone's thinking the same thing – what made you come to Hogwarts so late? I mean, I've never heard of it happening before." Everyone around her nodded in agreement, and it seemed as if the whole hall stopped their conversations to see what Hermione had to say.

"Well, as you probably know, Hogwarts isn't the only school for young witches and wizards in England. It's just the biggest. There are a few small ones all over the place – some of which only send out letters of acceptance to those who they think will benefit most from what they provide. For me, it was that my parents were very worried about not being able see me as much as they'd have liked to. The school, although still boarding, was really close to where my parents lived, so I could easily visit them on weekends. I loved it there." Sirius noticed how sad she looked when she finished. As soon as she stopped talking, James was quick to ask,

"Why did you leave?"

"I didn't want to, I had to. Voldemort…" There was a collective hiss at this, which Hermione ignored, "Voldemort attacked the school while I was on the way to my parents' house, and there were no survivors."

This seemed to silence the whole of the Gryffindor table, and Hermione looked down. Remus, who was sitting on the other side of her, put his hand on top of where hers was on the table. She looked up and smiled at him. For some reason, this made Sirius slightly angry.

"What about your parents, aren't they upset you're so far away from them?" Remus asked tentatively. Sirius noticed Hermione's hand tighten into a fist on the table.

"When I arrived home, they were dead to, just because they were muggles. He killed my friends and my family." The silence at the Gryffindor table was horrible. Sirius didn't know how to act in these sorts of situations; he was much more comfortable in lighter, happier environments. He looked down at the tablecloth. If he had looked up, he would have seen the fire in Hermione's eyes.

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><p><strong>So did you like it? I have to say the part with the sorting and stuff was much easier to write than the first part, which felt a bit awkward. I'm thinking about doing the next chapter in first person – maybe some of Hermione's POV and some of Sirius'. Yes? No? Tell me what you think please. Leave a review, they get me writing quicker :D<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi, sorry about the long wait – a lot of things are going on in my life that that have been keeping me busy, but I've tried my best :) Okay, so it's really good that you guys are taking the time to read the story, but do you think you could review? Please? I want to know what you think! I assume you don't think it's horrendous if you've bothered to read up to this point – but feedback keeps me going and I want to know your opinion. To those who _have _reviewed… you guys are amazing :D**

**I forgot to say in the last chapter, but I went back and changed the year Hermione is now in to 1977 because I accidentally put 1976 the first time I put it up here, and if you were one of my first readers you may not have seen that. Okay, so this chapter I'm trying out Hermione's POV and I've decided that I'm going to have Lucius in the year above the Marauders – yes, I know that he's actually about five years ahead of them, but I'm going to disregard that fact. I hope you can see past that and still enjoy the fanfic.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, if I did I would probably be relaxing on a beach right now…**

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><p>I pulled the suitcase containing my new possessions down the corridor, cursing myself for buying so many heavy books – before remembering that I was a witch and pulling out my wand.<p>

"Wingardium Leviosa" I muttered, and continued to walk in the direction of the Gryffindor common room, my suitcase hovering beside me. As I went on my way, I contemplated the events of the day that had just past. Meeting the people who are now my peers was so strange, especially those that have terrible fates heading in their direction. It took all my strength not to start crying when I saw James Potter, he looked so much like Harry – and for a moment, when I first saw him, I allowed myself to believe he was Harry, that the war hadn't happened and that everyone was fine. But they weren't.

When I noticed Peter Pettigrew, my hands had clenched into fists so tight, they left imprints of my fingernails on my skin. I wanted to kill him. Never before had I felt so angry than when I saw him, so relaxed, cheerful, _happy. _But I had stopped myself, forced my face to once again become a mask of indifference. I remembered one of the conversations I had had with Dumbledore.

"_He may be guilty of horrendous crimes in your time, but at this point he is innocent."_

"_But…" I had interrupted him._

"_But nothing! Would you not prefer to stop him from doing such things in future, by helping him now? Killing him may stop him, but it will leave a terrible mark on your conscience to murder someone who is innocent – or to lock him away. You have to try and understand why he would betray somebody he is so close to. That's part of the reason you wanted to be in Gryffindor, isn't it? To finally understand?"_

Sometimes, Dumbledore always being right was quite irritating. I laughed to myself at this – it was exactly what Ron used to say about me. I carried on walking until I got to the end of the corridor and turned right, the direction of the Gryffindor common rooms. Before I could make it any further, a heavy hand made its way onto my back pushing me into the wall, and a large body leant against mine, causing my wand hand to be painfully crushed against the wall and the wand to fall to the floor. My once hovering suitcase was lying forgotten on its side. On instinct, I shouted out as I felt hot breath against my neck and the hand on my back starting to wander downwards. I reacted almost without thinking. My left elbow jammed into the guy's stomach with as much force as I could muster, and the groan I got in response was enough to make me smile. The person stepped away from me slightly and I spun around, ready to send all the curses I knew his way. I recognised something in his features – but didn't really care at that point.

"Petrificus Totalus." I murmured, my finger stretched out towards the boy. My wand still discarded on the floor. The look of shock on the boy's face in the second before he fell to the ground was nearly enough to stop me feeling stupid for giving away my talent so soon. Nearly. But then again I could always obliviate him. I silently summoned my wand from the floor and back into my hand to do just that, but then I heard a sound from behind me. I spun around, my wand pointed in the direction of the sound. There stood the spitting image of Draco Malfoy, or Lucius, as the case may be. He too had his wand in the air, but instead of a look of anger, as I was used to with him; he had a look of surprise on his face.

"But…what? How did you…?" He sputtered. I grinned, glad he didn't seem to be as arrogant and evil as in he was in my time. "I thought it was only brilliant witches and wizards that could… But you're just a mudblood!" I raised my eyebrows at him and clenched my fists. Saying nothing, I gave a small flick of my wand and watched him fall over backwards with a smile. It seemed that my conversation with the Gryffindors had already made its way around the school.

"It's muggleborn, moron."I turned back to the immobilised boy on the floor and quickly obliviated him. It wasn't too difficult to do, I only had to erase a few minutes of his life. Turning him over with my foot, I pushed him until he faced the wall, away from me. I turned back to a red faced Lucius, his wand out. Sighing, I got in a fighting stance, waiting for the inevitable. I'd beaten him once; I could do it again – although I wasn't really in the mood. He started firing spells left, right and centre, and I started deflecting them. It was funny to see such concentration on his face, the sweat starting to become visible on his forehead, while I just stood there, not doing anything to fight back, but starting to get bored.

"Having fun?" I asked. I gave a large fake yawn and he glared at me. He was just as irritating as Draco, if not more so.

My cocky attitude didn't last long though, as he shouted Sectumsempra and I didn't deflect it in time. It ended up hitting me in the stomach, causing me to topple to the ground. It felt like knives were repeatedly being slashed against my skin, and when I looked up Lucius just stood there, watching in horror. I knew I had to act before the pain made me incapable of moving my arm. The blood continued to pour through my shirt as I lifted my wand in front of me, whispering the healing spell Snape had taught me. "Vulnera Sanentur." The bleeding started to stop, but not completely. "Vulnera Sanentur." This time the wounds started to knit. "Vulnera Sanentur." The final time, the wounds almost completely disappeared, leaving only sore thin red marks.

I stood up, using my wand to quickly clean the blood from the floor and my clothes, before turning back to Malfoy.

"But, how did you…?" Again he looked shocked and confused. It seemed he didn't know the healing spell, it's a good thing Snape taught it to me, or I could have died.

"This is the second time tonight you've proven your idiocy, Malfoy. Don't steal someone else's spell unless you know the counter-curse!"

I turned and stomped off; waving my wand so my heavy suitcase was once again hovering beside me, leaving a very confused Malfoy in my wake. I turned my head back to see if he had left, but as soon as he realised I was looking at him, he spun around to go down another corridor, a slight smirk on his face. Was it just me, or was Lucius Malfoy just staring at my arse?

* * *

><p>Sirius' Point of View:<p>

James, Remus, Peter and I walked down the corridor; this was the first time we had been out in days, because we had wanted to give Moony some time to recover. His last transformation had been particularly difficult for him; he had attacked James while he was in his animagus form. James hadn't been paying proper attention, he probably wasn't worried about it because Moony hadn't succeeded in attacking anyone in weeks, but that didn't mean Remus wasn't a threat. Ever since we first managed to find our animagus forms in our fifth year, we had started to perfect the art of being around werewolves without being killed. It was trickier than it sounded.

James hadn't been too badly wounded, but I had stayed with Moony inside the shrieking shack while he and Wormtail went outside – but not back into the castle. It would have been too hard to explain to Madam Pomfrey. She was one nosey witch.

I continued to shuffle forwards; I was way too close to James for it to seem even remotely comfortable, until I heard sounds coming from a few corridors down. Interested, I started to walk in that direction, forcing the others to follow because of the small invisibility cloak. Peter started to whine about what would happen should we get caught and I impatiently shushed him. He looked frightened, Remus looked exasperated (he was a prefect, after all), and James looked excited. This was really what I expected from them all. We turned down another corridor until a white-blonde head of hair came into view. Malfoy. I hated the little bastard. It was his father's money alone that had gained him the title of Head Boy.

We continued to move forward, leaning against the wall so that if someone came past they wouldn't bump into us, until we could see who Malfoy was with. It was definitely a girl, but she was leaning forward slightly, her hair covering her face, as she waved her wand over herself and the floor. She was cleaning up blood. My hand itched to grab my wand and attack Malfoy, but the girl spoke.

"This is the second time tonight you've proven your idiocy, Malfoy. Don't steal someone else's spell unless you know the counter-curse!"

James snickered quietly behind me, and Remus and Peter did the same. It _was _quite funny, to see 'His Royal Highness' Malfoy dressed down like that. The girl lifted her head defiantly at him, and I gasped quietly when I saw who it was. Hermione Granger. I noticed that Remus stood up a little taller when he too noticed who it was. I clenched my teeth. She was just some girl, why did I even care?

The 'some girl' in question walked off, her suitcase hovering by her side. Her shoes hit the ground hard, sending the sound all the way down the corridor. It was only when Hermione turned around and glared at Malfoy that I noticed I had been staring at her arse. And, by the look on his face, it seemed that Malfoy had been too.

* * *

><p>Hermione's PoV:<p>

The Gryffindor corridor was practically empty when I arrived, except for those few stragglers who were still up, sitting at tables or on the sofa in front of the fire, doing what I supposed must be homework. Once again I was reminded of my own time – Ron and Harry were always up late, writing essays at the last possible minute. They almost always managed to keep me up too, even though I had usually written mine days before. I stared wistfully into the fire for a moment, remembering everything I could about my friends, until I noticed that I was being stared at. I turned around and most of the eyes quickly shifted away, but not before I saw the look of pity in their eyes. I started to regret the story I had told at the Gryffindor table – I hoped I wouldn't be treated like this all the time. I huffed a little before mounting the stairs to the girl's dormitory, when I got to the top I turned left, just as Mrs. McGonagall had said to, and walked to the third door on the right.

On the door were initials; AS, MM, LE. I knocked quietly and, when I got no response, opened the door. I walked in, waving my wand so that my suitcase landed beside me. As soon as I did this the door started to glow a golden colour. When the glowing stopped, HG was written next to the other initials. It felt strangely final to see my name up there.

* * *

><p><strong>I know there really wasn't that much of important stuff here, so I'm sorry if anyone's disappointed. I think I really just needed to introduce some of the characters a bit better and see how I felt about doing it in different PoVs. To me, Sirius' was easier to write, but I'm a rubbish judge of my own work so tell me what you think. Which did you prefer: Hermione or Sirius? And do you think Malfoy was portrayed right? Anyway, whether it's an essay or just a few words please leave a review :D<strong>

**Potterphile: Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate all the stuff you said and I think you might get an answer to some of your questions in the next chapter. I've spent some time thinking about Peter and have decided that I do want him to be redeemable, as I tend to dislike fics where he's evil – in my opinion it doesn't really fit in with his personality. Yes, he is a coward but I've never really thought he would have done anything like he did without somebody pushing him along. Although that's just my opinion, I'm welcome to other ideas which may cause me to change my mind.**

**To everyone else who reviewed, thank you! By the way, if you want to know something, just ask in a review or PM me, I'll answer you as best I can. Also, if you see a mistake – point it out! I hate reading stories which are full of grammatical errors, so don't hesitate to tell me of my own.**

**Till next time, Siriuslymental7.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi. I know, I know. It's been forever since I updated, I'm sorry, really. Perhaps you could forgive me? I'm not going to make excuses, I got distracted... a lot, but I'm back now, and after this chapter, updates should start getting more frequent. This is the longest chapter yet (to try to make up for my going away) and I hope, if I even have any readers left, that you like it.**

Hermione was awoken by somebody poking her in the leg. She grimaced and turned over before looking up, and was surprised to see three girls staring at her unabashedly. She gave a small groan before rubbing the sleep from her eyes and sitting up. A girl with fiery red hair stood slightly in front of the other girls and, seemingly suddenly realising just how uncomfortable her staring was making Hermione, smiled and held out her hand.

"I'm Lily Evans, we met after your sorting?"

For a moment, Hermione just stared in shock. _That _was Lily Evans? Harry's mother? She remembered meeting her, but never really learnt her name. Now that she thought about it, this girl did sort of look like Harry. Then Hermione looked at the girl's eyes. The bright, warm green she had become so used to seeing when she needed help, comfort, or just someone to talk to. She had missed those eyes.

Harry's mother, _Lily, _let out a small cough and Hermione realised she was still holding out her hand. She blushed slightly and quickly took hold of it, shaking it firmly.

"Sorry about that, got lost in my thoughts there for a while."

"Oh, don't worry; I do that all the time." _Lily _replied with a smile. The other two girls quickly introduced themselves – Amanda Smith and Marlene Mckinnon. Hermione racked her brains, trying to recall as much information as she could about the two young girls in front of her, she didn't remember hearing anything about Amanda, but she was sure at some point, someone had said something about Marlene, as she recognised the name. She hadn't met either of them in her own time though, and the thought made her feel slightly sick. There was a high possibility that they were both dead.

She climbed out of bed and pulled the robes, shirt, skirt and tie Professor Dumbledore had given her the day before out of her bag. She assumed that either Professor McGonagall or Madam Pomfrey must have been the one who had bought her the clothes, because in the suitcase there was underwear, as well as another set of robes, socks and some more shirts and skirts. She had also been supplied with a bag of toiletries, a hairbrush and some money. This she had tried to return to Dumbledore, but he was adamant that she keep it saying that she would probably need to buy some more things the next time a Hogsmeade trip came up.

She went into the bathroom to have a quick shower and get changed, hoping that she wasn't going to be late for breakfast. When she came out, Amanda rushed past her into the bathroom, holding a bulging make-up bag.

"I'm sorry; did I take too long in there?" Hermione asked Lily and Marlene apologetically.

"Take too long? Amanda takes ten times how long you spent in there. People tend to wonder what she's doing all that time..." Marlene trailed off with a sly grin and there was a shout of indignation from inside the bathroom.

"Hey, I do not do _that_! Stop giving Hermione bad ideas about me." She opened the door slightly and poked her head out, smiling. "I'm lovely, really. It's Marlene you should look out for." She glared in Marlene's direction. "She's the one who's screwed half the quidditch team." She smiled sweetly and slammed the bathroom door closed just as Marlene's pyjama bottoms hit exactly where her head had been moments ago.

Lily looked at Hermione from her bed where she was brushing her hair and rolled her eyes. "Ignore those two their immature idiots, you..." She was cut off by Marlene who said:

"Oooh, immature are we? Look who's become all high and mighty just because she's a _prefect_. You won't want to hang around with her Hermione, she's had a stick up her arse ever since she became one in fifth year..." This time it was her who was cut off, by Lily's pillow hitting her in the face. She grabbed it, threw it back and said, in a singsong voice, "Now, that wasn't a very prefect-like thing to do, was it?" This time, Lily just laughed and continued to brush her hair and Marlene made her way over to the dressing table and started putting on make-up.

Hermione remembered then that she was supposed to be new to Hogwarts, and not know anything about it. She cleared her throat. "Sorry, but what time are we supposed to be down for breakfast?"

"Oh don't worry; we have at least five minutes yet." Marlene replied with a smile and she gave a tentative one back.

Lily, seemingly finished getting ready, came and sat down on Hermione's bed. She smiled at her. "You were lucky to have, umm..." she hesitated for a moment, as if contemplating what to say, "_arrived _here when you did. On the welcoming feast in the Great Hall, I mean. Even with the time you spent in the hospital wing, you've barely missed anything. But, if you need any help catching up on your lessons, or anything else – you need only ask."

Hermione grinned at her, it seemed that Lily was just as kind as her son, If she was going to be suck here for the foreseeable future, she was glad to know there was at least one person she could trust. Even if she was going to have to spend her time secretly preventing Lily and her future husband from dying.

"Yeah, but that's the only lucky part of my _arrival_, because I am to be forever known as 'That Girl Who Fell On Some Poor Person's Dinner'." Hermione said with a small embarrassed laugh.

"Oh don't worry about it, everybody will forget about you once James and Sirius pull some other stupid prank." Lily's nose wrinkled in disgust as she mentioned the boys, and Hermione smiled internally, how Lily's opinions would change – and she didn't even know it yet.

"I take it you dislike these people then?" She said. Lily was about to say something when Amanda walked out of the bathroom, after having spent a very long time getting ready, and groaned.

"Oh don't get her started! She _says _she hates them, but anyone with half a brain can sense the sexual tension between her and that idiot, James."

Lily went bright red and gasped, "There is _no _sexual _anything_ between me and that ugly twit." She looked so affronted it took every inch of willpower Hermione had not to burst out laughing.

This time it was Marlene who spoke, "Hey! He may be a bit of a twit, but he is anything but ugly. Those chiselled features would have panties dropping left, right and centre. Alas, he is infatuated with our little prude herself: Lily."

"Shut up, Marlene!" Lily sniffed pulling her hair into a tight ponytail, "Anyway, I've heard he _does_ have panties dropping, as you so eloquently put it, left, right and centre."

"Why do you care?" Amanda asked with a smirk.

"I don't." Lily replied.

"Then why, may I ask, are you blushing such a deep shade of red?" Marlene countered, she was also smirking.

Lily looked just about ready to explode, and Hermione couldn't hold it in any more. She burst out laughing, really laughing, like she hadn't since before any of the huge, horrible war stuff had happened, since before Harry and Ron had died, when everything was easy and simple and she didn't have the whole wizarding world resting on her shoulders. And she realised in those few seconds of bliss that this was her chance. Not just to save her friends and family and everyone that had died at Voldemort's hands, but also to have a life. Yes, it wouldn't be the one she'd always wanted, and without Harry and Ron it wouldn't be nearly as good. But she couldn't go back now; to save all the people she could she needed to stay here, right where she was – and although she would miss her friends, looking at Lily's red face now, she knew she couldn't let her die. Not when she had the chance to let her live.

Lily continued to glare at the girls and Hermione said, between gasps of laughter, "I need to meet this guy; I just _have _to check out this sexual tension for myself."

"I told you – there is no bloody sexual tension! Come on, we need to get to breakfast." Lily grabbed her bag and stomped out of the room, her face still as red as her hair, but starting to get back to its normal pale colour.

"Don't worry about her; she always gets annoyed when we talk about James. It's a shame really; he is so very enraptured by her. Although of course, he also happens to be a twerp most of the time, but it's that Sirius Black, his friend, who rubs off on him - he's even worse!" Marlene exclaimed, also picking up her bag. "You have all your stuff for lessons, right?"

Hermione smiled, this was another thing she was excited about. With Voldemort not so much of a problem right now, she had chance of finishing her education properly. She had told Dumbledore about her O.W.L results, and he was impressed. She had insisted he use legilimency on her, even though he hadn't felt the need to, to check she was telling the truth. It made her feel safer somehow, knowing that he knew she wasn't lying, even though he would have believed her anyway. Fifth year had been the last year before the attack, and she was very grateful she had managed to get her results before the attack. Although it wasn't unexpected, hence the whole summer full of learning new skills in defence against the dark arts, and also her lessons with Snape, it came earlier than they had anticipated. It was on the second day of school that the attack began, the first part of which was where Snape murdered Dumbledore in front of the majority of the school. Only an hour later, giving them not nearly enough time to get properly prepared, the school was flooded with Voldemort's followers. Over the next two days, everyone Hermione loved had died.

"Yeah, Dumbledore gave me everything I needed." She replied.

"Good, let's go then." Amanda said, grabbing her bag from the floor. Hermione picked up her own, even though she didn't yet have her timetable she had told Dumbledore which subjects she was taking and had put all the books she might need for the day in there. It was, unsurprisingly, extremely heavy, and she quickly cast a spell that lightened the load considerably.

"What spell did you just do?" Marlene asked, looking at Hermione's bag.

"Oh, it was nothing really; it just changed the weight of my bag a bit." Hermione felt a bit worried, she knew this wasn't a spell that she should know yet, but she had seen Professor McGonagall use it, and looked it up in the Library. She had eventually taught herself how to perform it, but it took a long time – now, whenever she used it she felt quite proud of herself.

"Really? I don't think I've ever seen it be-" she was interrupted by Amanda.

"We really need to get down to breakfast, Lily's going to be annoyed if James sits next to her when we're not there."

"Okay, okay, let's go."

We walked together down the steps and into the common room, where Lily was sitting on one of the sofas, squashed up against the arm and looking uncomfortable. James was sitting next to her, talking animatedly. Remus, Sirius and Peter were on the sofa opposite, listening to James.

"But then I grabbed is arm and said 'No you don't, you bastard!' and punched him in the face! Quite heroic, right?" With this James glanced towards Lily, who glared at him and said:

"Yeah, very heroic. Or it would have been, had it actually happened."

"It did, I swear it did. You were there, you tell her Sirius!"

"Sorry mate, I don't remember that." Sirius replied, and shot a dirty look at Lily. It was then that Lily noticed her friends were there and she breathed a sigh of relief. While she had her back turned, James glared at Sirius, he shrugged unapologetically.

"Ahh, there you are, it's _so _good to see you." She gave Marlene a long, meaningful look before continuing. "We're going to go to breakfast now, so see you later." She strode off, not even turning to look at the boys as she did so.

Marlene and Amanda started to follow her, so Hermione did the same, but when they got to the entrance, somebody called out Hermione's name. She turned to see Remus walking towards her and she smiled broadly at him, remembering the time she had spent with him before the battle. He had been somewhat of a mentor to her, and she had to admit that in her third year she had had a bit of a schoolgirl crush on him. And here he was now, looking so young and a bit embarrassed (at what, she wondered) as he made her way towards her.

He was next to her in a matter of seconds and smiled. "Hi."

"Hi."

"Um..." He looked awkwardly in the direction of Marlene and Amanda, who were staring at them.

"It's okay guys, I'll find my way down in a few minutes."

"But you won't know where to go-" Amanda started.

"I'll show her the way," Remus said, then he blushed, "I mean, if that's okay with you." He finished, looking at Hermione. She smiled at him, was he always this way when talking to girls? The Remus she knew was so much smoother than this.

"Yeah, that would be good."

Amanda shrugged, and walked out, Marlene followed, but not before putting a hand to her heart and grinning at Hermione. She was glad Remus didn't see that, or he would have probably blushed all the way down to his toes.

Remus seemed to relax now that he didn't have an audience and smiled at Hermione again. "Sorry, I don't think I've properly introduced myself, I'm Remus." He held out his hand and she shook it.

"Well, Remus, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Hermione, although, you already know that. I would be quite surprised if there is a single person in this school who doesn't know who I am after my entrance the other day." She made a face at him, and he laughed.

"It wasn't _that_ bad."

"I fell right on top of the dining room table! If that isn't bad, then what is?" This time it was Hermione who laughed, and Remus smiled at her.

"Okay, I see your point." He paused, looking at the clock on the wall. "Oh, we had better be getting down to breakfast, before your friends start to think I've abducted you." The portrait swung open and he indicated for her to walk through with his hand. "After you, my lady." He smiled at her.

"Why thank you, kind sir." She replied with a grin, walking through. He followed, and the portrait was about to swing closed, when a voice shouted:

"Hey, Mooney, wait up!" The portrait stayed open, and Remus grimaced at Hermione, before leaning down to her ear (he was at least a head taller than her) and whispering, "They're really quite nice, but I apologise in advance." She was just looking up at him in confusion when three boys clambered out of the portrait hole and two strong arms clamped around her shoulders. She looked up and saw James on one side, and a very young, _very_ handsome Sirius on the other. James looked down at her and grinned wickedly.

"Well hello there, Hermione, isn't it?" She nodded, still quite shocked by his forwardness. No matter how alike they looked, she couldn't imagine Harry ever doing anything like this. She looked up at Sirius. Okay, if he had had a friend like him for five years then perhaps it wasn't quite so difficult to imagine. The two boys started to walk forwards, so Hermione did too, lest she be dragged along by the arms around her shoulders. James pulled his hand away from her and instead walked in front of her, backwards so that they were facing each other. "Well, it's lovely to meet you. I shall introduce the group. You've already met Moony – I think he likes you by the way." With this he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Hermione turned around to see Remus blushing and looking daggers at him. James carried on. "Over there is Peter, or Wormtail, he's the little baby one of the group." Now he started to shout. "But we look after you, don't we Wormy!" This time it was Peter's turn to go red, he was standing next to Remus now, and Hermione noticed him clenching and then slowly uncurling his fists. She wondered for a moment how often this kind of thing happened, before she was once again swept up into James' theatrical introductions.

"The one with his arm around you, that's Sirius." He put his hand over his mouth slightly and started to whisper in a voice so loud everybody in the whole of Hogwarts must have heard it. "I would stay away from him if I were you; somebody told me he had a problem with his..." He paused for a second, looking directly at the lower half of Sirius' body. "...you know what." The arm around Hermione's shoulders stiffened slightly before it was lifted entirely. Sirius walked forwards and clapped James on the back, harder than what would have been completely necessary. He turned and gave Hermione a wolfish smile. "I can ensure you there is _nothing _wrong with my... you know what." Hermione felt herself blushing involuntarily, and cursed herself for looking like such a silly little schoolgirl.

James seemed to have gone as long as could without being the centre of attention, and carried on. "Now, the devilishly handsome man you see before you..." At this Hermione made a coughing/choking sound before exclaiming:

"I'm sorry, but I don't see any _men _around here." James pouted, put his hand to his heart and cried out dramatically, "You have badly wounded me, woman! I don't know if I'll be able to recover from this!" After that he fell to the ground, moaning. Hermione looked down at him in slightly confused amusement. Sirius also looked down at him, finding the situation quite funny, before realising what she had actually said. "What do you mean you don't see _any _men around here? I'm a man!" He looked quite serious, and Hermione grinned.

"You keep telling yourself that, Sirius." She smirked at him, and walked down to the Great Hall alone.

* * *

><p>When she got to the Great Hall, breakfast was still going on. Lily waved her over to where she, Amanda and Marlene were sitting with some other people she didn't know, and Hermione sat down in the space saved for her next to Lily and Marlene.<p>

"When Amanda told me they'd abandoned you with the boys I wondered how you were going to survive." Lily grinned at her. "But I see you managed to escape, where did you leave them?"

"Not too far from the Gryffindor Common room. I made my way here myself." Hermione grabbed some things to eat; she hadn't had a proper Hogwarts breakfast in ages.

"By yourself? How did you manage that? It took me months before I knew where to go in the morning." She turned to Amanda, who was sitting on the other side of the table. "Don't you remember? We either had to follow the older kids, or get up half an hour early to make up for the time we lost because we were going the wrong way." She giggled. "And we always seemed to follow Steven Jenks, that Sixth year - you had such a crush on him." Amanda too giggled, and then turned to Hermione.

"Yeah, so how did you know where to go?"

Hermione had frozen for a second when Lily first mentioned it, but when she had been talking with Amanda, Hermione decided what she could say that sounded plausible. "Oh, McGonagall showed me how to get there, I have a pretty good memory."

"Pretty good? I say it would have to be bloody amazing if you could get that from one journey. Even a photographic memory wouldn't be good here – the staircases keep moving!" This was from a girl sitting next to Amanda, opposite Marlene; she was petite, with brown, curly hair and large eyes. Her voice seemed slightly too big for her body, her laugh infectious, and the boy next to her had his arm around her.

"With a memory like that you must do well in exams, right?" This came from a tall, thin, blonde girl sitting to the right of Amanda, opposite Lily. She was gorgeous. What she had said was a simple comment, something that, on its own, was in no way meant to be offensive. But when paired with the ugly sneer on the girl's beautiful face, it was almost like an insult. Lily introduced the brunette as Mary, and the blonde Claudia.

"I do okay." Was Hermione's swift reply.

"Oh yeah, what did you get in your OWLs? Assuming, of course, you do them in those _little _schools." This was again accompanied by the sneer Hermione was beginning to connect with this girl. She wasn't normally one to boast, but, she reasoned with herself, was it really boasting if she just told the girl the truth?

"I took Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Astrology, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions and Transfiguration. I got nine Os and one Exceeds Expectations, in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Pretty good for such a _little _school, right?"

The girl looked gobsmacked, and then slightly embarrassed.

"You got what?!" Hermione turned around to see Sirius, James, Remus and Peter staring at her. It had been James who spoke.

"That's better than Remus! Wait! That's better than Lily! Jesus, we don't need _another _know-it-all making us look bad!" This was Sirius.

Remus sat down between Hermione and Lily, who had moved over for him. "Hey, at least I might beat you in something – Defence Against the Dark Arts is kind of my forte."

Sirius started to climb on top of the table, on his way to sit down next to Claudia, who had waved at him.

"Oh I'm not sure, I'll bet she's had a lot of practise in that area." Claudia snarled out, stabbing at her plate. There was a long silence as what she had said sunk in. Sirius quietly got back down from the table without crossing, and sat next to James, who had squeezed in beside an uncomfortable Lily. Hermione drew in a large breath, before smiling.

"You'd better watch out, I'll bet I can beat you in a duel, any day." The mood immediately lightened again, and the chattering got started. Although, Claudia wasn't included much. She left the table early.

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><p>Hermione looked over her timetable as she sat down in the potions classroom. She was taking eight subjects, as was starting t wonder if she had piled on too much. Albus had tried to get her to drop at least one more subject, but if it were up to her she would carry on with all her OWL subjects, so eight was the least she could do. She had dropped only Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology, and her timetable looked alarmingly empty of free periods. She was starting to think she was being selfish, not thinking about what she was actually meant to be doing here. But when she had talked about it with him, he told her that she was right to think of herself.<p>

"You need to get to know the people around you. The best way to do that is to be yourself. If you creep around, trying to find out whatever you can about the people you want to look after, I guarantee you'll learn less than if you just become friends with them. But don't ever feel bad about wanting to achieve the most you can, you've got a lot of potential, no matter what time you're in."

Lily came into the classroom with Amanda and, not noticing Hermione, went and sat down on the other side of the classroom with her. She turned around a second later, now realising Hermione was sitting on r own. She made an apologetic face, but Hermione just smiled at her. She preferred to work alone, anyway. Suddenly Lily's eyes widened slowly, as if she were...

"You're in my seat." A shadow had come over the area Hermione was sitting in, and she turned to see a thin, gangly boy standing behind her. A boy with greasy hair, and a long, hooked nose. Snape. Hermione's eyes narrowed.

"Excuse me?"

"My seat. You're sitting in it."

"Do we have set seats in potions?"

"I always sit in that place"

"Obviously not always." Hermione turned back around to look down at the desk disinterestedly.

"Mudblood." Snape muttered.

Hermione was standing and facing him in a flash, her wand to his distinctive nose. The faint M that was still slightly visible on her back seemed to be burning with the memory of the pain that word had caused. "Say it again. I dare you." His wand was against her chest and he started to open his mouth to speak when the door was flung open and in strode a young looking Slughorn.

"What on Earth is going on in here? Put your wands down, both of you. Oh, it's our new student, Miss Granger. Not really the best way to start a year, Hermione. Five points from Slytherin and Gryffindor. Let's hope you're as good at potions as you are at getting in to trouble."

Hermione sat down in _her _seat, and an angry Severus sat in the only one left, which just so happened to be next to her. The lesson was simple really; it was obvious Slughorn was using it as a way to see what she could do, so she showed him. Every student had to brew Amortentia, the powerful love potion Hermione had learnt about in fifth year. It was almost impossible to perfect, but she knew she was going to be judged by this, and wanted to impress Slughorn, especially after what he had walked into in the classroom. By the end of the lesson, her potion was a perfect pink, not too bright, not too dark. Perfect.

Slughorn walked around the room, looking at had everyone had done. Hermione noticed him congratulating Lily, and then Severus. When he reached her it was obvious he was very surprised.

"Oh! This is wonderful! Another potion brewer! This class must be the best I've had in years, look at the colour, and it's not bubbling too much, oh this is great. Stay behind for a minute after class would you, Miss Granger?" Hermione nodded at him, smiling. She knew what was coming next.

Everyone placed a vial of their potion at the front of the class, the girls giggling with one another about what they could smell. Hermione breathed in deeply, the smell of freshly cut grass, new parchment and spearmint toothpaste was intoxicating.

At the end of the lesson Hermione stayed behind. On their way out, Amanda and Lily congratulated (teased) her on becoming Slughorn's new favourite. Slughorn smiled at her, and she smiled back warily.

"The potion you made today was brilliant, Hermione. I haven't seen such a clear pink in so many years, and then three of my students perfect it in one lesson? It's unbelievable, really. But now, to more important matters. This Saturday I'm having a little get-together, a dinner, for some of the students. These types of meetings are for only the brightest students in the school at the moment and, after seeing what you did today, and knowing about your amazing OWL results, I was wondering whether you would be willing to join us?"

Hermione smiled, it was just what she had guessed would happen. "It would be my pleasure, sir."

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